That kept the ball out of Cody Zeller’s hands — for a while. He finished with his fifth double-double of the season with 21 points and 13 rebounds.

“It’s tough to duplicate that, even in practice,” the 7-footer said of Northwestern’s defense. “We ended up figuring it out at the end, but that kind of throws things off. They just kind of sped us up for a while. We kind of panicked for a while. ... Once we got in the middle and got in the baseline we started making shots.”

Indiana was limited to 15 second-half shots, making eight, but made 19 of 24 free throws.

Northwestern, which outscored the Hoosiers 42-36 after halftime, closed within five three times in the final seven minutes.

A 3-pointer by Reggie Hearn pulled the Wildcats to 56-51 with 2 minutes, 32 seconds remaining.

Hearn kept the Wildcats afloat for much of the game, sinking shots while his teammates were invisible at times. He scored 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Jared Swopshire added 13 points.